France, Paris / 1325–50
Mirror Case with a Couple Playing Chess
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Mirror Case with a Couple Playing Chess as ivory (France, Paris · 1325–50).
Chess was a wildly popular pastime among the nobility, and was also an important element in medieval romantic literature. Who do you think is winning this game?
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this ivory as ivory.
The museum's collection notes: During the 1300s, elephant ivory was valued by courtly patrons as the most exquisite material for indicating the human form. At this time Paris was the center of production for luxury ivories like the example seen here. They were much sought after by members of the court and aristocracy as emblems of wealth and status and signifiers of fashion and taste. This ivory, once forming a mirror back, depicts a man and woman engaged in a game of chess, a popular game at the time representing both love and war in medieval iconography. Various suggestions have been proposed for the identity of the couple—Tristan and Iseult or Lancelot and Guinevere—wit
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtMirror Case with a Couple Playing ChessOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.